William left the tools of a cutler to his step-son Thomas Bingham. This lead to the discovery of his apprenticeship to William Nutt of Grimesthorpe (near Sheffield). The apprenticeship ended in 1627 and he was admitted to the Sheffield Cutlers Company in 1631.
There was a William Backhouse who immigrated in 1637, but there is no other mention of him anywhere, until the mention of this William in Saybrook in 1657 where, according to the Bingham Genealogy of 1927, pg 75, Backus is a name listed as present at a Saybrook town meeting on January 7, 1657. Bingham genealogy (96) says he is listed at a town meeting in 1648. [
[620]]William had children in England after 1637.
LIEUT. FRANCIS GRISWOLD, b. in England, 1629; d. October, 1671. William BACKUS and Lieut. Francis GRISWOLD were among the patentees of the town of Norwich. He is called “a man of capacity and enterprise.” Settled in Saybrook, 1655-1656, was “one of the first proprietors of Norwich, 1660, taking an active part in the affairs of the Plantation, and from 1661 inclusive to 1671, was a Deputy to the General Court. “Of the twenty-five founders of the Colony made in 1669, William BACKUS and Francis GRISWOLD were included. The first proprietors list of Norwich, November, 1659, included William BACKUS, William BACKUS, Jr., Francis GRISWOLD.” In 1682, Francis GRISWOLD with two others formed a Court of Commission; m. Mary TRACY, dau. of Thomas TRACY. (Colonial Families of the United States of America, vol. 5; Ancestry.com.)
Savages: WILLIAM, Saybrook 1638, had there William and Stephen, rem. to Norwich a. 1660, was freem. 1663, and d. June 1664, leav. sec. w. Ann, wh. d. May 1670. His first w. was Sarah, d. of John Charles.
[500]